Planning a Homeschool Year: The Overview – Simply Convivial

Alright, we’ve dealt with the previous year and now it’s time to look ahead to the next! Planning a homeschool year is always my favorite part of the cycle.

I started planning with a big picture look. First, I looked really big picture when I realized that my oldest is a year away from seventh grade – when things like Omnibus and Logic and other new things loom as possibilities. So I spent a little time making sure we’d be ready, as far as I could tell, for high school in 3 years. Then I jotted down how old everyone would be during Hans’ high school years.

I got scared off planning for a little time after that. It’s a good thing I started early. And, it takes a lot to scare me from planning! But, just like our family grew one child at a time and my mothering abilities, capacities, and experience grew slowly over 10 years (and still is growing!), so schooling all these children is an experience of slow stretching and growing so that each year I’m ready for that current year. God’s the one working providentially all along.

So, anyway, I finally calmed down and remembered that I only had to plan and execute this year and not all the next 5 years.

4yo K-1st: Circle Time, Phonics, Reading Practice, Handwriting, Math, Read-Alouds. (he’s already reading, so he’ll be joining the 6yo most of the time)

2yo busybody: Circle Time, Read-Alouds, coloring in her chair, special toys in her pack-n-play, troublemaking. (I’m praying she doesn’t give up her nap this year, but all my others did before they were 3).

Courses

Math: We use and I love Math-U-See. Because it is a mastery-based approach, the rate each student moves through the books varies drastically based on each student’s development and on the concepts in each book (the first four take the longest to master). So, I have two books ahead for each student ready. Knox is starting in Primer (because he really wants to), Ilse completed Primer and 10 lessons of Alpha last year and will pick up where she left off, Jaeger will return to long division in Delta, and Hans will continue what appears to be a fast-track through Zeta. My current plan for math is to stick with MUS as far as each student gets through 8th grade and then reevaluate for high school.

Latin: I’m using and loving Latin for Children with the lesson DVDs. We completed half a book last year, so we’ll see if we can at least finish them out and maybe move into the next level. I’m ok with going slow if it means we’re mastering it. Last year the reason we only finished half was because I dropped the Latin ball more than because we were pacing ourselves. Jaeger is in Primer A and Hans in Primer B.

Circle Time: We’ll continue on as we have been, because it’s working. Don’t fix what isn’t broken. The only thing I’m tweaking this year is that I’ll attempt to be a bit more intentional about the “liturgical” element, that is, the habits around beginning and closing. More on this when I write about Circle Time. Everyone, even the baby-toddler, will be a part of Circle Time.

Elementary Lessons: My friend and I will be doing our little mini-co-op swap thing again. Twice a week my 6yo & 4yo will go down to their house for read-aloud time and open-ended play without older sibling interference and during those times (which will also be while the baby is napping, if she cooperates) my friends’ 10yo & 8yo will join us for lessons. We’ll do Bible, History, Science, and Shakespeare together. This year it’s Gospels & Acts, modern times, elements & the Periodic Table, and at least 2 plays which are yet to be determined. We’ll also do something for writing which will involve writing instruction but also writing on topics we’re reading about in our lessons.

Personal Enrichment: This is how I’m grouping nature walks, free reading, commonplacing, drawing, and piano. We might not do each one of these each week all year (well, there will be independent reading nearly every day), but I want to be intentionally about setting aside the space and time for them to be woven into our lives. In my mind, these are less about academics and school and more about simply living a rich and wonder-filled life – myself as well as the children.

Phonics & Early Reading: My 6yo is an emerging reader and my 4yo is starting to read smoothly. We’ll continue with phonics instruction and practice using TATRAS. They’ll also practice reading with early readers and I’ll log their books on Goodreads. They will likely reach their 100-book milestone this school year if I am consistent on my end. Our children get their own real Bible after they’ve read 100 books.

Handwriting: I’m pretty much a handwriting flunkie for my oldest two, so we’ll see if I can do better for the subsequent children. I’ll be using Beautiful Handwriting for Children and Startwrite. After 1 term of letter-formation practice, I’m going to introduce italic cursive to the 6yo. I only want a few top-down lines and left-to-right circles out of my 4yo, but I’m anticipating some days he’ll want to do nothing (fine by me) and some days he’ll want whatever the 6yo is doing (fine by me).

Read-Alouds: I know most people do read-alouds during Circle Time, but for us it’s primarily a memory work time. They younger kids will get one or two picture books before the phonics lesson, there will be reading aloud for both age sets during our lesson trading time, and I will keep the iPods loaded with audio book options. The boys requested that we also listen to an audio book during lunch time. I’ll also add “read the younger kids a picture book” to each of my older boys – reading aloud is a good skill! Sometimes my husband reads a family read-aloud in the evenings, too.

Time Management: I am also going to try taking my own daily index card practice and teach it to Hans and Jaeger. We’ll do a together weekly review sort of meeting on Mondays, plus start Circle Time with a “scrum” where we go over the agenda for the day and what each person is responsible for. Basically, I’ll be trying again with our one-on-one meeting plans, because the boys liked them and thrived under them, but I dropped that ball 80% of the time after Christmas break.

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Hi! I’m Mystie. At Simply Convivial I write about managing a full life as a mom: not only on productivity hacks, organization tools, and homeschool curriculum, but also on cheerful attitudes and necessary habits. Together, let’s get a handle on our roles, responsibilities, and mindsets so we can flourish where we are called to serve.